When members of a New Jersey couple that shares a minor child opt to go their separate ways, the courts generally insist that they establish a parenting plan if they are both going to remain active participants in the child’s life. This is true regardless of whether custody and co-parenting concerns have arisen due to a divorce or a non-marital breakup.
A parenting plan serves as a legally-enforceable set of expectations, rights, and responsibilities related to a co-parenting relationship. Although co-parents can address any issues that warrant formalization, some of the most common co-parenting challenges that are managed within the text of a parenting plan include:
- Division of parenting time
- How holidays and special occasions will be divided
- Transportation and division of belongings between households
- Which parent will be responsible for specific costs, such as summer camp tuition
Additionally, it is becoming increasingly common for co-parents to include virtual visitation terms as part of their parenting plan arrangements.
What Is Virtual Visitation?
Virtual visitation is a term used to describe methods of communication utilized by a child and a parent with whom they are not currently residing. You and your co-parent can both formalize your rights to communicate with your child when they are with their other parent by adding virtual visitation terms to your parenting plan.
Being Thoughtful When Crafting Virtual Visitation Arrangements
When determining how to proceed with virtual visitation, make sure to take your child’s age, communication style, attention span, and need to remain connected with both of their parents into account. Permitting a teen to text, call, email, and video chat with their other parent whenever they please may be appropriate. Whereas, setting up a specific schedule to allow each parent to read a younger child a bedtime story each night that they are not around may make more sense under different circumstances.
Adding Virtual Visitation Terms to Your Parenting Plan
If you are negotiating or litigating custody matters for the first time, you can add the inclusion of virtual visitation matters to your list of “to-dos” for this process. If you already have a parenting plan in effect, you can negotiate directly with your co-parent and work with our office to formalize any mutually-agreeable arrangements that you settle upon. Otherwise, if your co-parent doesn’t agree to a modification but you believe that asking the court to add virtual visitation terms to your order would be in your child’s best interests, we can aggressively advocate for your rights in this way.
Schedule a Free Consultation with a North Bergen, NJ Child Custody Lawyer to Learn More
Whether you have not yet begun to draft a parenting plan or you are interested in modifying an existing parenting plan that is already in effect, working with the creative North Bergen, NJ child custody lawyer at Carvajal Law can make the task at hand easier and less stressful. Attorney Lazaro Carvajal has more than a decade of experience assisting New Jersey parents just like you with custody and parenting challenges. Regardless of whether your situation is straightforward or complex, collaborative or contentious, he is available to provide effective representation.
Get started today by scheduling a no-obligation legal consultation for free. You can either submit a contact form on our website or call our offices at (201) 281-5577 to book a time that works for you. Our team looks forward to assisting you.